“The neighborhood record store was once a clubhouse for teenagers, a place to escape parents, burn allowances and absorb the latest trends in fashion as well as music. But these days it is fast becoming a temple of nostalgia for shoppers old enough to remember ‘Frampton Comes Alive!’ In the era of iTunes and MySpace, the customer base that still thinks of recorded music as a physical commodity (that is, a CD), as opposed to a digital file to be downloaded, is shrinking and aging, further imperiling record stores already under pressure from mass-market discounters like Best Buy and Wal-Mart.”
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UK Museums Closing For Lack Of Local Funding Support
Britain’s museums are in crisis, according to one of the country’s leading arts charities, which has released research showing that historic institutions are being neglected by cash-strapped local authorities.
Opera’s Power List
Who are the most powerful people in American opera? Opera News made a list. “You have the expected, of course: the chiefs of the four biggest opera companies (and eight of largest 10), high-powered agents from IMG and CAMI, the two maestros named James (Levine and Conlon), “The Diva” (Renée), and, naturally, The New York Times (collectively). But there are a few surprises, too.”
A State Of Opera Power
Why make a list now? “There’s new management in many other houses, including major companies in Houston and San Francisco as well as dynamic smaller companies such as Atlanta Opera and Madison Opera. And everyone’s talking about the same thing and asking the same questions: What’s the future of the art-form? Where are new audiences going to come from? How are we going to maintain the cultural relevance of opera in the United States? In response to this compelling scenario we made a list of 25 names that represent power in the industry now as the industry looks forward.”
The Small Town With The Big Music
Little out-of-the-way Salida, Colorado doesn’t have much music. But every summer, the toen hosts a major league chamber muic series. “The historic Arkansas River town of 5,000, best known for kayaking and art galleries, is hardly a classical-music mecca, yet folks there have managed to keep a summer chamber series going for 30 years.”
Opera’s American Champion
“In the first decade of the 21st century, Mark Scorca may be the most passionate activist for opera in America, a role for which he appears to be typecast. As president and chief executive officer of the New York- based national service organization Opera America, he knows virtually every plot twist in the challenging music dramas that big and small opera companies face on a daily basis.”
The British Museum’s Pragmatic Reconfigure
Neil McGregor has transformed the fortunes of the British Museum in his four years at the top. Now he’s planning a major show, and, to get enough room to show it, is taking over the historic Reading Room. “Few, however, expect the plan to pass uncontested. Curators at the BM are resistant to disturbance and backwoods traditionalists and backbench MPs will doubtless rally in support of the dodo. Stand by for a tabloid outcry, the anti-literate in defence of the unread, before the Reading Room is finally submersed.”
The Forger Goes Legit
“John Myatt is an artist. He is not, he is the first to admit, the world’s finest artist. He is, however, quite possibly the world’s finest forger. What he is doing, now, for up to £5,000 a painting, is forging to order, entirely legitimately: his ‘genuine fakes’ are stamped as such on the obverse, and his perfect (if Dulux) versions of, say, Giacometti’s Seated Nude, or Matisse’s The Pink Room, now grace ski lodges in Aspen and villas in Tuscany. It’s all great fun, and above board: it wasn’t always so.”
Not Enough Good Fiction In Toronto?
Toronto Life’s last annual fiction issue has gone to press. Why no more? Not enough good writing to be found? “Spurred by the realization that Toronto had become one of the world’s literary hot spots, the annual fiction issue was launched in 1997, and has received as many as 200 submissions annually. The magazine canvassed publishers, agents, members of the Writers’ Union and others to gather a range of material. The idea was to find stories consistent with the mandate of the magazine, and for the first three years this proved feasible. But by the fourth year, the magazine was inviting submissions from across the country.” And not finding them.
Met Museum Joins Art-For-Money Loans
The Metropolitan Museum joins the ranks of museums loaning works in their collections for fees, with a show going to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. “The upcoming Met blockbuster is an ‘opportunistic event,’ made possible by the need to remove the museum’s French 19th-century paintings from the walls while those galleries are expanded. It is, he said, intended to ‘raise funds for this construction’ – the first time that the Met has structured a traveling exhibition as a big moneymaker.”